35 Shuffle

This is a useful techniques for making democratic decisions in a group, such as choosing between multiple options, but without people advocating for their own favoured option. It involves individuals privately assessing many different possibilities and then the comparing the overall group result.

For example, consider a group choosing where their first case study site should be.

Each person in the group writes their preferred option on a card.

• Aroha writes Huntly, Waikato.
• Ben writes Kaitaia, Northland.
• Carol writes Geraldine, Canterbury.
• Dave write Mosgiel, Otago.
• Enid writes Bridge Pā, Hawke's Bay.

The moderator might check at this point that all the options are unique. If there are duplicates, either:

• ask someone with a duplicate to replace their option with something different (recommended), or
• remove duplicate cards and some people won't need to record scores in subsequent rounds.

Everyone gives their card to someone else.

If possible, this should be someone they don't know. Make sure everyone has a new card and nobody has two or more. Tell people they will hold onto this new card for the rest of the exercise.

• Aroha gives her card to Ben.
• Ben gives his card to Carol.
• Carol gives her card to Aroha.
• Dave and Enid swap cards.

Each person reads the option on their new card and scores it out of ten.

• Aroha thinks Geraldine is an okay option and writes the number 6 on the card.

Each person asks someone else to score the option on the card they are holding.

• Aroha asks Enid to score Geraldine.
• Enid gives it an 8.
• Aroha writes this score on her card.

Note that cards are not exchanged. Aroha asks Enid for a score, but continues to hold the card until the end of the exercise. Also note that a person who made a suggestion can not score that suggestion.

Repeat this last step until every card has five scores OR everyone has scored all eligible options.

Hand the cards to the moderator and compare scores.

• Aroha and the rest of the group hand their cards to the moderator.
• The moderator calculates an average score for each option and writes it prominently on the card.
• The moderator sticks each card on the whiteboard, arranged from lowest to highest.

Discuss as a group this order and use to make a decision on options.

Get the group to talk about the options. Do people agree that the highest scoring option(s) are preferable. Why or why not?